The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American supersonic, twin-engine, two-seater, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft. The Tomcat was developed for the United States Navy's Naval Fighter Experimental (VFX) program after the collapse of the F-111B project. The F-14 was the first of the American teen-series fighters, which were designed incorporating air combat experience against MiG fighters during the Vietnam War.
The F-14 first flew in December 1970 and made its first deployment in 1974 with the U.S. Navy aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65), replacing the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. The F-14 served as the U.S. Navy's primary maritime air superiority fighter, fleet defense interceptor, and tactical aerial reconnaissance platform into the 1990s. The Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) pod system was added in the 1990s and the Tomcat began performing precision ground-attack missions.[1]
In the 1980s F-14s were used as land-based interceptors by the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force during the Iran–Iraq War, where they saw combat against Iraqi warplanes. Iranian F-14s reportedly shot down at least 160 Iraqi aircraft during the war, while only 12 to 16 Tomcats were lost; at least half of these losses were due to accidents.[2][3]
The Tomcat was retired from the U.S. Navy's active fleet on 22 September 2006, having been supplanted by the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.[4] The F-14 remains in service with the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, having been exported to Iran in 1976, when the U.S. had amicable diplomatic relations with Iran.
So I was asked to build on a commission an F-14 tomcat in 1/32 Scale
Not a problem, I chose the D version as it helps going forward, read on.
the kit itself is very nice, with minor fit issues but nothing dramatic, I was going to use a resin cockpit, but for some reason this didn't fit to well, so I decided to go with the kit cockpit, and use the Eduard photo etch.
I have also used JS miniatures again for the lighting chip for the navigation lights
The client wanted to have this aircraft on a carrier deck base, but its over 1 meter long, thinking cap on how am I going to do this.
After a few attempts of drawing the base out, I had in my mind a visual, so i had it put together in indesign using one of my designers with in my business, then we printed this out to scale on 5mm fomex, this would give me my template for painting.
I had noticed that david over at flightpath had 1/32 USN decking in photo etch and white metal tie downs, So I purchased one deck plate and 5 sets of tie downs, these come with 25 pots and then 25 tie down deck plates, also chains in the correct scale, and towing arms etc etc, all this was very handy.
The fomex was mounted to 5mm mdf and left to dry for a week, then using the deck PE I was able to use this to mark out the tie downs and then drill them out to allow the white metal pots to sit in them 125 were set, the rest of the decking was scratch built using plastic card, and metal tubing
the Tugs are all from verlinden, what can I say just brilliant especially in this scale, the figure are from REEDOAK in France, http://reedoak.com/these are not resin or plastic, but a rubber composite but the detail is just exquisite perfect in every way, unbelievable detail all one piece no glueing.
I used a mixture of paints from Haloford’s grey primer spray can variety to vajjelo and tamiyia, the back drop again is an image printed out on to 10mm foamex.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=833MO4Cg1S8&feature=youtu.be